Hi Bernard, I’ve been writing (well creating a world) for ten years and I’ve finally finished my first book story from it which is having its cover designed at this moment and is halfway through being published in the UK. I wonder if I can ask you a couple of questions? Basically in my first book I have tried to focus on the story and characters thus most of my ‘world’ ideas are hinted at or only put in place when required. This isn’t a problem as I can write many books that when combined can cover the whole world ideas (I have to work full-time too though so it is a very lengthy process for me) anyway, do you mind sharing any technique to help me switch off from the fact that one book is being published and about to be judged for the first time, so that I can focus on the next book? I’m in that period of fear, excitement, worry and fulfillment depending on the day of the week and half of my mind is worrying that the next story should be out rapidly to cement myself as a writer and the other part of my mind thinks I should rest a while and wait for any readers to judge whether I deserve to fulfill my dream of being a full-time writer. The other question is when you first started writing did you have just one world in mind or many? I notice you have a vast array of different book periods written now and I’m worried that one world may limit my potential but time is always a problem for me. I started writing when I was 12 and I’m now 23, the Sharpe series was the first set of books I read so thank you for the inspiration your books conjured within me! I hope you don’t mind my questions, the publisher was too keen to actually publish the book and in the blitz of the process I forgot I was human and I think the built up emotions are hitting me as the release date approaches. Thank you for your time, Tom